Time once again to dip into the box of old Dragon Magazines under my desk. Today's magazine takes us back to December 1991. AD&D 2nd Edition is the new kid on the block, but there are still AD&D 1st ed holdovers. Hook and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country are ruling the box office. In the US Michael Jackson's "Black or White" knocks out the superior (in my opinion) "Set Adrift on Memory Bliss" by P.M. Dawn. And on the magazine racks and shelves is Issue #176 of This Old Dragon.

As was common in the 1990s, this is a "feature" issue, and this month's feature was elves. Always a winner, to be honest. The cover art featuring elves fighting a group of goblins and gnolls, comes to us via Lissanne Lake. She would go on to do work for White Wolf and the Affliction: Salem 1692 game. 

The cover also tells me there is a Giant poster inside. But my issue doesn't have that. Neither does my Dragon DC-ROMs. A search reveals it to be a poster of the cover of Dragon #166.

Open to an ad for GDW's Dark Conspiracy. Nice to still see ads for other companies and games here. There is also an ad for "The NEW Easy to Master" Dungeons & Dragons Basic boxed set.  I covered this set a while back and it is fun.

Letters covers the concerns over the lack of a proper African campaign setting or myths in D&D, which  the new Egyptian art in the AD&D 2nd Ed Legends and Lore getting a particular call out. 

Is that Isis or Freya?

Dragon responds back with various excuses where a "Yeah, you are right, we should do better" would have been enough. 

Roger Moore's Editorial touches on this in a way. Providing some forward-thinking on how we should deal with people who are different from us, be that other ethnicities or other species (in D&D and ShadowRun terms). He does point to Star Trek the Next Generation as an example. 

More ads. Which, and lets be honest, are as fun as the articles. In this one for Waldenbooks (pour one out all you Otherworlds and Preferred Reader members out there!) and has some new D&D books on the way. One if the Ravenloft Van Richten's Guide to Vampires...and Other Undead. Ok so the content and cover changed from this to publication. Not the first time we have seen this. Nor the last.

We now get into our featured section on the Elves.

Servants of the Seldarine by Chris Perry covers and updates what we know about the gods and goddess of the Elves (and Drow) to AD&D 2nd Edition, with a bit of a lean in to the Forgotten Realms. I also have Monster Mythology sitting here on my desk for my next foray into the Realms, along with The Drow of the Underdark, so this is timely. This article predates Monster Mythology. While the information here for elven specialty priests will be superseded by newer books, the information is great to have and I'll add it to my cache of random Realms lore. 

If You Need Help - Ask the Drow! from Ed Greenwood and Steven E. Schend also adds more to the total of Realms lore. This time, obviously, about the Drow. This article also ties in with FOR2 The Drwo of the Underdark. There is a map of the Promenade of Elistraee, the "good" Drow Goddess and covers her specialty priests in more detail. 

And that appears to be it for the elves special feature. 

Forum covers some of the topics of the day, as usual, mostly related to past issues. The topic de jour deals with "psycho-pathic players" from issue #172's Forum. I am unsure if the authors' mean "players" or "characters."  The examples do lean in on characters, but the players have something to do with it. No advice is given really. 

Friend of the Other Side Bruce Heard is up with his Voyage of the Princess Ark, now up to Part 23. If you love Mystara/The Known World as much as I do then these are great reads. Nothing sets the tone for the BECMI line quite as well as these do. There is fiction here, but enough playable crunch to keep me coming back for more. 

The Convention Calendar gives us the run-down on the latest gaming conventions of the Winter of 91-92. None local to me though.

Ad for Vampire the Masquerade. Wonder if it will do well?

Spike Y. Jones has advice for "dressing up" your modern games in Propping Up Your Campaign. Though I can't see any GM wearing a suit and tie to a game session. Though there is some fun advice here. Among the things it suggests is raiding your little brother's toy box (with permission). A whiel back we did a huge cleaning and took a bunch of old toys from when the kids were little to WINGS. We kept anything that might be good for D&D props like toy dinosaurs and even some weird knock-off Pokemon and Yugioh toys we bought on a trip to Chicago's China Town. 

TSR Previews covers what is new for December 1991 and January 1992. Your mail-in registration for Gen Con 1992 is on the next page. Early bird entries much be post marked by January 31, 1992. 

The Lessers (Hartley, Patricia and Kirk) are back in The Role of Computers. Games covered are Heart of China (5 stars), J.B. Harlod Murder Club (4 stars), Phantasy Star III (4 stars), A-10 Tank Killer (5 stars), and Space Quest IIII (4 stars). 

Michael G. Ryan gives us this month's fiction piece, Time for an Experiment. 

Doug Niles is up with Role-Playing Reviews. He covers The Awful Green Things from Outer Space by Tom Wham and from Steven Jackson Games. This is an update of the same game that appeared in the pages of Dragon #28 all the way back in 1979. Niles still loves it. The Scotland Yard game from Ravensburger (German company fairly well known for their puzzles today) is a "whodunit" game where the players track down "Mr. X." It honestly sounds fun. He also covers the Battle of the Bulge game from who else, Avalon Hill. 

Marvel-Phile is up with lesser known characters like La Bandera, Windshear, and Witchfire. Ok, so I did already know Witchfire.

Ah. I knew thos toys we saved would come in handy! Gregory W. Detwiler gives us prehistoric beasts in Playing in the Paleozoic. These are AD&D 2nd Ed monster stats, but not the full monster listings with Combat and Habitat/Ecology sections. Still. We went to the Field Museum and the Illinois State Museum more times than I can recall. So we have tons of plastic prehistoric monsters here. This one is fun!

Skip Williams is up with Sage Advice. This time, covering the effects of various wizard spells. 

Not a review, not an ad, but somewhere in between is Novel Ideas by Marlys Heeszel. This time we cover the new R. A. Salvatore novel Canticle.

David Wise updates us on the AD&D Collector Cards in The Game Wizards. 

DragonMirth has our comics for the month including Yamara and Twilight Empire. 

Gamers Guide has our small ads. Ads for play-by-mail games (those will soon die out), music tracks for your games on cassette. Wargames West has their ad. A couple of ads look like they were printed out on a Macintosh pritner. Sign of the times. 

We end with Robert Bigelow's reviews of new minis in Through the Looking Glass. At the time of this issue I had maybe one or two minis I had saved up for. I read this ad now on a desk covered in all the minis I have been printing from our 3D printer. Currently all the lords of the Hels and then some are sitting here waiting for a coat of primer. 

So. A fun issue really, but the "special feature" was a little weak even if the articles themselves were pretty good. Loved the Paleozoic monsters the most really. 

 Last month I presented a few characters from Grenda's collection of Forgotten Realms material. It got me thinking I needed to continue my exploration of the Realms.  Among the books in his collection is the amazing The Forgotten Realms Atlas. Under normal circumstances at this point in my exploration of a new world I would go right to a publication like this. The fact that it is the next book in chronological order and it was part of my friend's collection makes it an even better choice. 

The Forgotten Realms Atlas (2e)

1990. By Karen Wynn Fonstad. Forewords by Ed Greenwood and Jeff Grubb. 178 pages.

Before I get into this book, I have a few words about Karen Wynn Fonstad. She is not a name usually associated with the Realms, but she is a "name." Prior to this book, she had given us the equally extensive Atlas of the Dragonlance World. She came to these via her work on The Atlas of Middle-Earth, The Atlas of Pern, and the Atlas of The Land from "Chronicles of Thomas Covenant." All epic works of cartography and staples of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Book Club during the 1980s.  All her books have a similar feel to them, and all are meticulously well-researched. She had been the Director of Cartographic Services at the University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh and had fallen in love with Tolkien's world back in 1975.  I don't know if she felt the same love for Toril, Krynn or Pern, but her work in all three was top-notch. She passed in 2005 at the young age of 59. She was remembered fondly in the New York Times this past January, nearly 20 years after her death.

The Atlas itself is a massive work. The book itself is 178 pages, with 3-color art. The only illustrations in the book are Fonstad's maps and there is nearly a map per page. These are not just geographical maps of places, there are maps of towns, homes, castles, even standing stones on the Moonshae islands. Everything is footnoted and cross referenced. 

It covers all the Forgotten Realms products, novels and RPG sources, up that point. So it is pretty comprehensive. 

The atlas is divided into four major sections.

Part One: Regions

This covers the large regions of the known world of the Forgotten Realms circa 1990. It includes large area maps of the Western Realms (most familiar) north and south, the Hordelands, and the Eastern Realms where Kara-Tur had been newly re-set. 

Part Two: The Moonshae Isles

This covers the Moonshaes and the places (and events) of the Darkwater Trilogy novels. I should probably read those at some point. The level of detail here is rather amazing, to be honest, and you do get the feel that this is a living, breathing world. 

Part Three: The North and West

Again, the areas most familiar even to the most casual Realms fan. Though, while I admit that now I am likely more than a casual fan, the amount of detail here is staggering to me. There is so much I don't know here. Reading it makes me feel like I have missed a lot since there are many references to the novels. I know I am never going to ever read everything Forgotten Realms, but this does make me appreciate the in-world and real-world history here.

Part Four: The Western Heartlands

This is the bulk of the book and is just packed. Here, I am further outside of the areas I know. Hell, even the areas I know I know I don't know well. But I think I am going to come back to this book very often.

Honestly. This book is a treasure. I had flipped through a copy of Fonstad's Atlas of Middle of Earth years ago and was blown away by it. I have the same feeling here. It is almost too much to take in at once.

Her References alone would be the basis of a great adventure, academically speaking, to read up on the Realms from 35 years ago. It is more than I could ever hope to read and still manage to get all my other reading in! But it also gives me ideas of other products to review, beyond what I already have. 

 

Today is the release day of the new D&D 5.5 Monster Manual. It does not have "monster stats" for orcs or drow (nor elves, dwarves, halflings, gnomes, and other playable species). In general, I am okay with this. I can add my own if I want. But the treatment of orcs, in general, seems to have some people bothered. My post on Nouveau Orcs has been constantly in my weekly top five posts since I posted it back in July. It also seems the most noise is coming from a section of gamers who have also bragged about how they have not played any D&D published in the last 10 or 25 years.

Frankly, we are still on the same road that Gygax put us on.

Drow and Romulans

I have mentioned that my wife and I are rewatching all the episodes of every series of Star Trek. Right now (tonight even) we are going to rewatch the classic "The Balance of Terror."  The first time since we rewatched it's alternate-timeline counterpart, "A Quality of Mercy."

The Balance of Terror changed Star Trek forever. We see its effects in the "Reunification" trilogy of episodes, its effects on Star Trek The Next Generation, Star Trek Picard, and Dungeons & Dragons.

I have mentioned it many times here before, but the introduction of the Drow as "Evil (with a capital E) Elves" was a parallel to the Romulans as Evil Vulcans in Trek. It was obvious to me back in the early 1980s when I first played through it, but sadly, that plot point was spoiled for me. I don't know the effect either the D-Series adventures or The Balance of Terror had on those unaware.  Since then, Drow and Romulans have followed a similar development path. 

Both of our pointy-eared races have begun to be more like their good-aligned cousins since their mutual rediscoveries. Relations with the Romulans were beginning to get better even in the time of the Next Generation and practically friendly in Picard to allies in the later seasons of Discovery. Same is largely true for the Drow, save we have not hit the friendly part yet.

I would add that the same relationship and development cycle has become true for Orcs and Klingons.

Orcs and Klingons

When the Next Generation was in the idea stages, creator Gene Roddenberry originally did not want any Klingons in it. The rumor is that the fall of the Soviet Union, the "Evil Empire" of so many decades, prompted him to change his mind and see Klingons as becoming part of the Federation. Good thing too. Klingon episodes were always some of the most interesting ones in the franchise. 

Orcs are taking a similar role to Klingons. Granted, while there are individual good, even heroic, orcs, none have stood out yet like Worf Son of Mogh or Drizzt Do'Urden. But this is the early days of orcs now being a part of our Dungeons & Dragons "Federation."

Personally, I have stopped using orcs as pure antagonists for a long time. I almost always got for undead, demons, or evil cultists of any humanoid sort. Does this mean orcs are off the menu? No more than Klingons were. It is amazing for allies how many battles between the Federation and Klingons we saw not just in The Next Generation, but also Deep Space Nine and Voyager. Discovery even began with a fight with the Klingons that started the Federation-Klingon war.

So really. Maybe it is time to shift away from orcs as always evil. They can still be warlike and brutal, but giving them a little more credit can only make them more interesting. Take Orkworld, for example. John Wick was doing what D&D is trying to do now, 25 years ago. 

Games should evolve. Otherwise, you are just doing the same old thing all the time. And if I choose to say have orcs and drow and whatever as antagonists again? Well. I can still do that.

But maybe, just maybe it is time to see what orcs can add to the game as a culture.

 Today's Monstrous Monday is a special one, the return of my erstwhile series "Monstrous Maleficarum." In this new and revised version for "5th Era Fantasy RPGs" I am featuring the return of the Orc as a monster you can have as an antagonist. 

Just in time for tomorrow's new Monster Manual release. 

Volume #2 of Monstrous Maleficarum - Return of the Orcs

Orcs have been a staple of FRPGs since the dawn of the hobby. These creatures are as iconic as they are ubiquitous. 

With Monstrous Maleficarum #2 I present the return of the orcs to the latest edition of the World’s Greatest Roleplaying Game. Orcs for the new 5th Era.

Herein, you will find the classic Pig-nosed orc, the mighty green and gray orcs, the blood-thirsty Blood Orcs, the violent Ghost-Face orcs, the noble and good Desert Orcs who call elves “brother,” and the intelligent and equally dangerous High Orcs.

What is Monstrous Maleficarum?

Monstrous Maleficarum is a series of smaller publications to feature new monsters for the 5th Edition of the World's Greatest Role-Playing game. Sometimes these monsters are from previous editions, brought into the new era via the Open Gaming License. Sometimes they are new takes on classic creatures of myth and legend. And other times they will be brand new creatures.

Each “issue” will feature a theme of related monsters.
Every issue will feature 100% Open Gaming Content text.

I will have more to say on Orcs and other "missing monsters" as time goes on.

Drelnza holding Daoud's Wondrous Lanthorn aloft.
Art by Jeff Easley, 2012.My son is getting ready to run Module S4, The Lost Caverns of Tsojconth, one of my all-time favorite adventures. And as it turns out I recently re-acquired my original S4 from my old DM's collection. So I have that, the 5e version from Quests from the Infinite Staircase, the 3e extension, and other variants so I am well prepared to help him out.

Then he asked about Drelnza.

Of course I know who she is in the context of this adventure. I know who she is in relationship to Iggwilv, but beyond that...there is just not a lot about her. So I set out to discover more. Was she once a Lawful Good Paladin? Who was her father? How did she become a vampire? I might not be able to answer all these questions, but I will give them a try as I go In Search of Drelnza, Iggwilv's Treasure.

In Search Of...Drelnza, Iggwilv's Treasure

What can we say we know for certain?

Drelnza (sometimes Drelzna) is a vampire found in the spherical chamber guarding Iggwilv's stash of magical treasure. 

She is called "Iggwilv's Treasure" and is her daughter. Whether that is a biological daughter can be debated.

 She is a standard vampire in the original S4 for AD&D 1st Ed. In later editions, she gets a few upgrades, including fighter (or Samurai) levels and a really powerful sword (named "Heretic").

What is tantalizing about her is how little we really know. 

From reading the original Winter Con V version of the adventure, we do know that she was originally just a "vampiress lord" sleeping on a stone slab, a bit like Sleeping Beauty, and designed to catch the characters and players off guard. It is a ruse that is only likely to be used once and lampooned in the later Castle Greyhawk adventure "Temple of Really Bad Dead Things."

Outside of that, there is very, very little about her in the adventure itself. However, I have learned that on Oerth-Prime, she was killed by Melf.

Drelnza's Life and Unlife

Nearly nothing is known here. We have one tidbit of information, though. The warlock Mary Greymalkin is the daughter of Drelnza and an Eladrin. This makes Mary the grand-daughter of Iggwilv. Something I should explore more. 

According to the Dastardly Decimal System Podcast, Drelnza was a warrior Princess. I like the idea of her being something akin to Xena. 

In any case, she must have had Mary while she was young, which means she is not a very old vampire at all.

Who's Your Daddy?

Gary never confirmed, or even really knew, who Drelnza's father was. He firmly left that in the hands of the players to decide in their own games if they ever felt the need.  According to Dragon Magazine #336 (October 2005), Drelnza was born between 481 and 491 CY. But this seems really late into Iggwilv's rule of Perrenland and not long enough ago to be "centuries" since Iggwilv was last seen. Reminder the "current" year in Greyhawk is considered to be 591 CY.  

In the article "History Check: The Iggwilv-Graz’zt Affair" from Dragon #414 it is stated that her father is still unknown and she might be the only being in the multi-verse Iggwilv ever truly loved.  So I'd like to think she was born early enough in Tasha's/Iggwilv's life when she was still capable of loving someone. 

Let's say that Iggwilv conquers Perrenland with her undead army in 481 CY. She is a Queen, but she needs a general, and who better to be a general of her undead army than her own vampire daughter, who also happens to be an excellent fighter (or even paladin/anti-paladin). 

So, her exact date of birth is really in question (by me), but honestly, I would push it back to the 460s or even the 450s. This would give Drelnza time to grow into a woman, have her own child (Mary), and then get turned into a vampire, likely something caused by Iggwilv herself. 

As for her father, there are many interesting prospects here. Let's look at them one by one.

Graz'zt

He has been the father of Iuz since his time with Iggwilv, but it is almost universally agreed that he is not the father of Drelnza.

Mordenkainen

Now here is an interesting idea. I like the idea that Iggwilv, maybe when she was still known as Tasha, and Mordenkainen having an illicit affair resulting in a daughter. The basic trouble here is one of timing. Back when Iggwilv/Tasha was young she had not met Graz'zt yet and it widely held that Iuz is older than Drelnza. Unless Drelnza is older, but was turned into a vampire and the age refers to her "living" age. Still...the timing is not exactly right. 

Ok. So not Drelnza's father, but maybe there is another child out there where Mordy and Tasha are the parents. Maybe this is the origin of the "Son of Pohjola" who she gave birth to on an alternate Earth?

Orcus

This is who I went with when I created the Noidan Tytär, or the Daughters of Iggwilv. However, I think I will stick with this for Iggwilv's Nine Daughters. I feel less inclined these days to make Drelnza among their number. This means Noidan Tytär, Iuz, and Drelnza are all half-siblings.

Tsojcanth

We also don't have many details on who Tsojcanth was. The ever-helpful OSR Grimoire features a bit of an interview with Gary about Tsojcanth, stating he was a powerful wizard, and almost certainly Good and human. This contradicts what is presented in Iggwilv's Legacy: The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth. I am more inclined to go with Gary's notion that Tsojcanth was human and good if not Lawful Good. The "fiend" Tsojcanth feels lazy and dull to me. Not to say he was not corrupted later on, but it still feels lazy. Plus it just means that Tsojcanth is the same as Iuz, only instead of Graz'zt and Iggwilv it is Fraz-Urb'luu and Vilhara. Even down to the imprisoning. No. We can do better. 

I am more likely to go with Tsojcanth dying and Fraz-Urb'luu pretending to be Tsojcanth turned evil.

So let's say Tsojcanth was a lawful good wizard. Iggwilv in her search for more power seduces and corrupts him (she is evil, after all) but there is an unexpected consequence; Drelnza. Drelnza becomes a fighter, no, a lawful good Paladin, until Iggwilv twists her into her "treasure" and makes her a chaotic evil Anti-Paladin Vampire.

I like it. It is evil, devious, and filled with tragedy. 

BUT the dates don't work here either since Tsojcanth was also supposed to have been dead for centuries. 

Lerrek

One last choice comes from The Oerth Journal. In Issue #13 Lerrek (and sometimes "Lerrik") is mentioned as the father of "Drelzna." According to author Andy Seale (aka Fallon, Ranger-Sage of the Vesve), Drelzna was born in 453 CY. 

Now this is from a fan publication, but the Oerth Journal has some weight behind it, and in the absence of other details we might as well use it. 

Given her two "birth" years, I am going to say she was born in 453 CY and turned into a vampire between 481 and 491 CY. That 453 CY works well with my own thoughts on when she should have been born. 

Ultimately, I guess it doesn't really matter who Drelnza's father was. The more important relationship is between her and her mother Iggwilv.

In the current state of things, Iggwilv is shedding her past to become the new Arch Fey Zybilna, and her alignment is drifting from Chaotic Evil to Chaotic Neutral. I guess we all slow down as we get older. While it is often stated that Iggwilv truly loved her daughter, I don't think there would really be a joyous family reunion even if Drelnza had somehow survived. 

Still. I would like to say she did somehow and is still out there somewhere in the Multi-verse. Is she searching for her mother? And if so what will happen if they meet up again after so many years apart?

Sounds like something I might want to run someday.

Links

• The Adventures
• S4: The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth (1e)
• WG4 The Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun (1e)
• S4 Acaeum.com entries
• My previous posts
• Daughters of Iggwilv
• Adventures in Hyperborea
• Iggwilv tagged posts
• Quests from the Infinite Staircase
• Posts tagged "Iggwilv"
• Drelnza wiki entries
• at the Great Library of Greyhawk
• at the World of Greyhawk wiki
• Drelnza, the Vampiress Lord
• Drelnza, The False Disney Princess, Sarah Dark Magic
• Dastardly Decimal System, Episode 31: The Daughter of Tasha: DRELNZA
• Tsojcanth
• Iggwilv
• Forgotten Realms Wiki
• Iggwilv's Legacy: The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth
• Canonfire discussion
• Dragonsfoot discussion
• OSR Grimoire
• WinterCon V: The Lost Caverns of Tsojconth
• Drelnza the Vampiress Lord
• Dragon #414: History Check: The Iggwilv-Graz’zt Affair
• Iggwilv's Treasure Miniature

 A few days late to report this, I completed TARDIS Captain's 2025 Character Creation Challenge with 40+ characters. I am mentioning it today because last night, I finally got all of Grenda's characters added to protective sleeves and put into a three-ring binder.

No idea how many this is, upwards of 250 characters. Most have multiple sheets. The binder itself can hold close to 1000 pages. The characters are predominantly AD&D 1st Edition with an odd GURPS, AD&D 2nd Edition, and D&D Basic Edition character here or there. 

If I ever need an NPC, I'll have one, or a score, ready to go.

It was a bittersweet exercise and I admit I really pushed the limit on the spirit of the Challenge. Not exactly new characters, all the same system. But I was really happy to do this. These characters were important once upon a time, and I wanted to make sure that, if just for a month, they were important again. 

31 Day Character Creation Challenge

Follow Timothy's board 31 Day Character Creation Challenge on Pinterest.

Character Creation Challenge by Aurora Stark

Looking forward to next year, though I don't know what I'll be doing yet.

 I am still having fun with Jason Vey's Cd8 Fantasy Roleplaying game. I thought I would give it a spin with some more characters. Getting a feeling of what the various power level benchmarks are and so on.  So I thought, let's bring back the Fearless Five and give them a go at it!

Not sure what mission they will be going on next. They got already Bargle. I just 3D printed Kelek on a Warg so maybe they are going after him.

Skylla

Name: Skylla
Species: Human
Attitude: The only thing important is power

Gumption: 3
Moxy: 3
Chutzpah: 1
Childlike Wonder: 7
Cut of My Jib: 5
A Certain Je ne Sais Quoi!: 1

Life Points: 26
Armor: 0 None
Speed: 30 ft

Skills: Detecting 2, Doctoring 2, Fighting 1, Herbalizing 4, Magicking 6, Mythologizing 2, Performing 1, Running 1, Shooting 1

Benefits/BugsEnhanced Senses 1Prodigy (Magicking) 1 (3pts)Super stats (Child Like Wonder) 4
Super stats (Cut of my Jib) 4Psychic 3- TK, PK, Mind contrtol
Weapons
Staff

Aleena

Name: Aleena
Species: Human
Attitude: Helping others

Gumption: 3
Moxy: 1
Chutzpah: 1
Childlike Wonder: 4
Cut of My Jib: 2
A Certain Je ne Sais Quoi!: 1

Life Points: 10
Armor: Heavy
Speed: 30 ft

Skills: Doctoring 4, Fighting 1, Magicking 3, Mythologizing 2, Researching 3, Running 1, Shooting 1

Benefits/Bugswhy me? -5
Weapons
Mace

Mogan Ironwolf

Name: Morgan Ironwolf
Species: Human
Attitude: Hitting things

Gumption: 1
Moxy: 1
Chutzpah: 3
Childlike Wonder: 1
Cut of My Jib: 4
A Certain Je ne Sais Quoi!: 3

Life Points: 21
Armor: Medium
Speed: 30 ft

Skills: Detecting 1, Driving 1, Fighting 6, Running 3, Shooting 3, Sporting 3, Tumbling 1

Benefits/BugsTakes A Licking 1Keeps on Ticking 5Lucky 3
Weapons
Longsword, Bow

Duchess

Name: Duchess
Species: Human
Attitude: Helping herself

Gumption: 1
Moxy: 2
Chutzpah: 3
Childlike Wonder: 1
Cut of My Jib: 4
A Certain Je ne Sais Quoi!: 1

Life Points: 20
Armor: Light
Speed: 30 ft

Skills: Detecting 3, Fighting 3, Performing 2, Researching 1, Running 2, Shooting 3, Sporting 1, Tumbling 3

Benefits/BugsLuckyIron ConstitutionYou Want to Get Out of Here Real Fast? 4Stat Increase 4
Weapons
Short Sword, Dagger

Candella

Name: Candella
Species: Human
Attitude: Helping herself and have a good time doing it!

Gumption: 2
Moxy: 2
Chutzpah: 3
Childlike Wonder: 1
Cut of My Jib: 3
A Certain Je ne Sais Quoi!: 2

Life Points: 17
Armor: Light
Speed: 30 ft

Skills: Detecting 3, Fighting 3, Performing 2, Researching 1, Running 2, Shooting 3, Sporting 1, Tumbling 4

Benefits/BugsLuckyStat Increase 4
Weapons
Short Sword, Dagger

 OK! These are fun. I did not detail Skylla's or Aleena's spells, really. They have them. If I expand them into a one-shot, then I may. I would totally run a game at a convention with these—some sort of heist where everything goes sideways.

That is not really a bad idea. I already built them all for ShadowDark and now again for Cd8. Well, minus the Sorceress. She was done with Skylla's interference. 

Cd8 does not have "levels" for characters. The game assumptions between this and level/class systems are too different. But for this round, I was working under some assumptions about how many XP to give out to equal a level. So far, my numbers have panned out, but I want to try it with a few more to be sure. 

So far I rather enjoy this game. 

 I want to spend some time focusing on other fantasy table top RPGs this year. I still love my D&D and likely always will, but I also have a lot of other games I enjoy as well. Here is one I have been playing around with for a little bit now. It is the newest from Jason Vey at Elf Lair Games. Cd8 Fantasy Role Playing.

Cd8 Fantasy Role Playing is described as a "beer and pretzels" fantasy RPG. Everything you need to play (minus paper, pencils, some d8s and some friends) is included in 32 pages.

It is designed to be picked up in an afternoon and have you playing right away. It is based on his previous RPG, Chutzpah! A Certain Je ne Sais Quoi. While designed as a bit of a joke and a design challenge, it turned out to be a very solid game. Cd8 Fantasy takes that same game design and applies it to fantasy. You do not need either game to play the other. 

You have the same attribute stats as Chutzpah, "Gumption," "Moxy," "Chutzpah," "Cut of My Jib," "Childlike Wonder," and yes, a "Certain Je ne Sais Quoi," and build your character. It is a point spread, so you are given 10 points to fill in each attribute. Minimum 1, max 3 with 2 as the human average. Then can go all the way up to 10 with experience.

You have your skills, 13 of them, and another 10 points to spend. Obviously, some of these are going to be 0.  

Rolls are a number of d8s equal to Stat + Skill or sometimes Stat + Stat or Stat x2. So, it is a d8 dice pool mechanic. Rolls of "6," "7," and "8" are called "Fist Bumps" or successes in other games. An "8" counts as having rolled 3 "Fist Bumps," and a roll of 1 takes one away.  

Let's say that you want to cast a spell. That would be your Childlike Wonder stat (we will say that is a score of 3) and your Magicking skill (say a 2) for a total of 5. Roll 5d8. You get 1, 3, 5, 8, 8. That two "8s" counts as 3 fist bumps instead of 2. But the die roll of one takes one away, so you have a total of 2 fist bumps. The God of Me (GM) says you need 2 fist bumps (above average difficulty) to cast the spell, so you got it!

That's it. That is the entire system! Granted, the next couple of dozen pages have more details, but you can learn the game that fast.

There are options to change the die from a d8 to something else to adjust the difficulties. There are options for fantasy species ("Elves and Dwarves and other Crap?") and examples of various monsters. 

Given this is an Elf Lair Games product, there are also conversion notes for Wasted Lands. 

To give your characters more depth or variety, there is an appendix on Benefits and Bugs, an advantage/disadvantage system. 

Honestly, it is a really fun game and simple to pick up.

Characters

Characters are terribly easy to make in this game. Over the weekend my oldest and I decided to try out the new D&D 5.5 system and make some characters. I will come back to that in a bit, but on the average it took about 15-20 minutes to make a character.  

With Cd8, I can create a character in about 5 minutes. This year, I will spend a lot of time comparing and contrasting a few characters. So here are a couple of my iconic characters. 

Johan Werper VII

For these experiments, I am going to start a new Johan. This guy is the son of Johan VI and Lana, mine and my wife's D&D 5.0 (2014) characters, respectively.  I did do a version of him for D&D 5.5 that I will detail later on.

Name: Johan Werper VII
Species: Human
Attitude: Do good things

Gumption: 1
Moxy: 2
Chutzpah: 2
Childlike Wonder: 1
Cut of My Jib: 3
A Certain Je ne Sais Quoi!: 1

Life Points: 12
Armor: 3 (Heavy)
Speed: 30 ft

Skills: Doctoring 2, Fighting 3, Magicking 1, Mythologizing 1, Running 1, Shooting 1, Sporting 1

Benefits/BugsProdigy (Fighting): 1 (3pts)
Honorable: 1 (-3pts)
Weapons
Sword: 3 + FB

Not bad, really. I like it, a great starting character. 

How about a much more powerful one?

Larina Nix

Of course, I am going to try my witch in this. 

Name: Larina Nix
Species: Human
Attitude: Do witchy shit
Experience: 440

Gumption: 5
Moxy: 6
Chutzpah: 2
Childlike Wonder: 8
Cut of My Jib: 2
A Certain Je ne Sais Quoi!: 4

Life Points: 15
Armor: 1 (Light)
Speed: 30 ft

Skills: Doctoring 4, Fighting 1, Herbalizing 5, Magicking 8, Mythologizing 6, Performing 2, Researching 6, Running 1, Shooting 1

Benefits/BugsEnhanced Senses (Magic): 1
Prodigy (Magicking): 1 (3pts)
Psychic
- ESP- TK
Resist Magic
Everyone I Care About Dies: -1
Weapons
Staff: 1 + FB
Spells

Again, very quick, and I like the results. I gave her 440 experience to spend. No idea if that tracks well with a 20th-level Wasted Lands character, but it feels right. 

 I had a post ready to go for today but I am moving it in favor of this dream I had last night.

My wife and I are HUGE Star Trek fans. One of the very first things we did as "just friends" was to watch the premier of the first episode of Star Trek the Next Generation together. When the episode "All Good Things" aired, we were taking our first vacation together as a couple. When Voyager began we were dating. When it ended we were married, had a house and a kid. Throughout our relationship Trek has been there.

Right now, we are in the process of re-watching all the Trek series. We didn't go in order, but we have watched Enterprise, Voyager, Discovery, and now we are on Strange New Worlds. Likely to hit The Original series next.

Where am I going with this? Well Trek has been on my mind lately. I was chatting with Steve over at Vulcan Stev's Database (a great place for Trek information) about his Beckett Mariner post that inspired my own. I have been doing TARDIS Captain's Character Challenge and one of my popular posts was about my USS Challenger and Capt. John Adnerg. AND I have been talking a bit in the FASA Star Trek Facebook groups about printing more FASA-era Starships on my 3D-Printer.  So yeah. The fact that I am dreaming about Star Trek is no shock or surprise; save for what I was dreaming about.

Stardate 1000000.0

One idea I keep coming back to is extra-galactic travel in Trek. During the Next-Gen eras travel was still confined with the Alpha and Beta quadrants of our galaxy. The Gamma (Deep Space Nine) and Delta (Voyager) quadrants had been stepped into, but only a little bit. Even in the post-Burn, post-reformation of Starfleet and the Federation of the 32nd Century (Discovery, 3190) have not ventured outside the Galactic Barrier. 

I must have had the DC Comics "DC One Million" on my mind as well. This takes place in a future where DC comics, from their then current numbering system would hit issue 1,000,000 of Action Comics. That would be  853rd Century CE.

For my Stardate 1000000.0 I figured it would be 200 or so years after the end of Discovery. Trekguide.com tells me that Stardate 1000000.0 is Thu Jul 23 3407 08:33:20 GMT-0500 (Central Daylight Time). So, the start of the 35th Century CE. Memory Alpha has nothing for this time period.

So what is this all about?

The mission for this Trek game (and I have NO idea what system yet) is a newly constructed ship made mostly of programable matter and holotech, leaving our galaxy to explore the Andromeda Galaxy. This obviously goes way beyond warp drive. It is 2.5 million light-years from Earth.

Extra-galactic travel is not really a thing in Star Trek. Though there have been some run-ins with refugees from the Andromeda Galaxy in Trek (some androids, the Iconians) there has been enough to explore in our own Galaxy. Extra-galactic travel is a thing in many other franchises like Dune and Doctor Who, and very recently Star Wars. 

I don't know what system to use yet (13 Parsecs maybe), nor what the general adventure hooks are save for "explore strange new worlds." I am not planning on a huge horror element, but given that this is me talking horror is going to be there somewhere. I don't even know what sort of drive will get them there or even what ship. At Warp 9.0 it would take 2000 years to get there and I have no idea how fast the new (3191) Pathway Drive is. 

In any case, this is not something I am going to take on soon. But I'll keep thinking about it and see where I end up.

 I went to my FLGS yesterday and picked up the last of the new Dungeons & Dragons 5.5 core books, the new Monster Manual.

It was the original AD&D Monster Manual that got me into D&D originally, so any new Monster Manual has a long climb to impress me.

Yes, it is true. There are no orcs in this book, nor humans, halflings, elves, dwarves, duergar, dragonborn, or gnomes.

There are goblins, bugbears, and hobgoblins. Also, monsters still have alignments. So the oft repeated rumor that WotC/Hasbro was getting rid of alignments is not true. There are still plenty of purely evil creatures to kill. Note: Goblins are now chaotic neutral. I actually like this, more akin to how I have been playing them.

The art is gorgeous, as expected, and there is art for every monster and then some.

The stat blocks are mostly the same as D&D 5.0 (2014), they are a bit clearer to read. Saving throws are all listed now, even when they are just the same as the ability modifier. 

The new book sits at 384 pages. The 2014 Monster Manual was 352.

Following in the footsteps of every major "Even" release (2nd ed, 4th ed, and this as 6th ed) each monster fits on 1, 2, or 4 whole pages. This makes reading the monster stat easy while in game; everything is right there. It also follows the trend established by many OSR and D20 publishers. Lots of monster books have been doing this, going back to the Creature Collection from Sword & Sorcery Studios in 2000. While it does make reading easy, sometimes narrative text and lore takes the hit to make room for stat blocks. I am mixed on that. I love the layout, and I am generally a fan of one-page monsters, but I feel like some monsters get shorted.

My biggest pet peeve, though, is the alphabetical organization. For example, Blue and Black Dragons are listed under "B" right along with Balor. Red Dragons are under "R."  This continues for all groups, including Giants, demons, devils, and everything. 

An interesting little quirk of this and a logical extension from the 2014 MM, Succubi are now an independent fiendish creature and Neutral Evil. They are also distinct from the Incubus. They are no longer separated by gender, but by role. Succubi (male and female) drain life via physical touch and Incubi (male and female) drain via dreams. I like the split in roles and it allows us to have two creatures to fill the role of the mythological succubus.

You can see this movement away from "gendered" monsters throughout the book. The art for the dryad is androgynous, which is fine. I have had male and female Ginko Dryads ever since I learned that ginko trees can be male or female. There are female satyrs. Again, there is precedent for that in art.  Sphinxes are no longer Andro- or Gyno- but rather Sphinxes of Wonder, Secrets, Lore, and Valor. Ok, that I actually like.  But, there are no nymphs.  I came to the D&D Monster Manual by way of Greek myths, so this feels a bit odd to me.

Honestly. I have been moving away from Orcs as my big bads for a while now. Goblins have always been too much fun to make completely evil. Give me gnolls, yuan-ti, or beholders as my monsters, and I can slaughter them indiscriminately. 

Even Star Trek made allies out of the Klingons and, eventually, the Romulans, so why can't D&D grow in its nuanced takes as well.

While the book is plenty large, I am disappointed there are no named Demons and Devils here. No Demon Princes, no Lords of the Nine, no Slaad Lords.

This book completes the Dungeons & Dragons 5.5 aka 2024 version of the Core Rules. I am not 100% sure I'll get much more of this line. I am not playing D&D 5 in any flavor at the moment. But who knows. 

 I have a new release for fans of the Old-School Essentials game (and any Basic Era game).

The Swan Maiden Class

Whether you are a fan of Poul Anderson's "Three Hearts and Three Lions," or old Welsh myth and tales of the Gwragedd Annwn, or the Swanmay from AD&D, this is the class for you.

From the DriveThruRPG page.

The swan maiden has appeared in the pages of literature and tales of legend. Many of which were the foundational tales of the Fantasy RPG hobby.  In this new supplement, you can now play as a member of this shapeshifting sorority of protectors of the natural world.

Inside, you will find:

- The Swan Maiden Class for Old-School Essentials (compatible with other Basic-era games).
- New spells for the swan maiden (and for rangers and druids if you choose).
- New magic items, including their fabled Cloak of Feathers.
- Alternate swan maidens including the Gwragedd Annwn, Crane Wives, and the evil Strix.

Requires Old-School Essentials Core Rules.

One and Two-page spreads are offered.

Classic Classes

This class came about while I was going through all of the material I was bequeathed from my late friend and former DM R. Michael Grenda. He had so much unfinished work here that it reminded me of my own oft-mentioned unfinished classes I have. So, I resolved to finish them up this year. This is the first.

I am calling this series "Classic Classes," though some are not "classic" per se, save for how long they have been languishing on my "to be completed" lists. I do not have a projected timeline for them all yet, but I plan on completing the Healer, the Sun-Priest (I just need to give it a new name), and a few more. For now, the plan is only to complete my own unfinished work. Grenda had his reasons for not wanting his published, and I have to respect that. However, some, like the Swan Maiden here, will get pushed up the line because of material of his I have read. 

Though there is a "Classic" in another sense. I have been going through and rereading all the Appendix N works and many of the "Further Reading" mentioned in the D&D Basic book from Tom Moldvay. So, my opinions on what those classes will do will be informed by those readings.

I am most likely to publish these for the Old-School Essentials RPG. I like the rule set, and the levels 1-14 are a nice sweet spot. But I leave myself open to whatever system works the best. 

Most of these classes will be classes I was working on at the same time I first developed my witch class. Some might even have some cross-over, but for the most part they will be non-witch classes.

I could not find the option to list this when I set up the title, so I'll state it here. 

This product has no AI art, and no AI/LLM was used to generate text. 

Why would I need AI to generate more text? I have hundreds of notebooks and files filled with notes. The last thing I need is a new way to generate MORE.

 I love HeroForge minis. I have made hundreds, but I can't afford to buy all the ones I want. Thankfully, I spent my Christmas break getting our resin 3D printer working. Once I got going, I went nuts.

That may not look like a lot, but it takes a while for them to print, and there are many casualties along the way. But I wanted to get all the Archdevils and Demon Lords from the AD&D Monster Manuals.

All of these demons and devils were made with HeroForge, and then I downloaded the STL files.

Geryon, Asmodeus, and Titivillus

Moloch, Mephistopheles, and Beelzebub 
Belial and Glasya (Fierna broke)
Lilith and a succubus.
Lilith is from the cover of Eldritch Witchery and the Succubus is my version of the Sutherland Succubus. 

Kelek on a Warg
Camazotz and Akelarre
Camazotz and Akelarre are two demons from my own games.


Archdevil Zariel. The only "newer" devil I use.
And I had to do a witch!

I bought this STL (3d printer file) online from Torrida Minis because I thought it looked like Larina. It is Tasha, from D&D, but she has been looking more and more like Larina over the last few years anyway. I still prefer her 3.x look. I kinda want his BloodRayne one too. My wife painted it for me. She also painted Belial and Akelarre above.  

I am going to try my hand at painting some of the demons and devils here but that is WAY outside my comfort zone. I am not very good at all. I still need to prime them all first. That at least I can do.

These are all resin prints, but Akelarre is from our FDM printer (which I still need to get fixed) and is a lot heavier than the others. 

Still have a few more to print out, but I am having a blast with this.

Well, here we are at the end of another Character Creation Challenge, and I found a little treat. And I just counted and this will be my 40th character this month. Not too bad really.

Grenda and I shared a love of computers, bad horror and fantasy movies, Dungeons & Dragons, and music. ALL my D&D games had a lot of music associated with them, something my oldest has also picked up. Now, I don't play a lot of music while gaming these days (I get distracted) I used to. So it is no surprise really that we all had characters based on songs or bands (looking at you, "Molley Hachit").  Today's character is no exception.

I have one rule for witch characters in my games. If you play a witch, you are allowed one "Rhiannon." I did mine, this one is Grenda's. 

I know very little about this character. I think she was pre-gen for some game. There are a dozen characters just like her on notebook paper. 

She is AD&D 1st Ee. I do not recognize her god or land, but others I do as his big "rebuild" of all of his lands and gods to divorce them from Greyhawk, Greek and Norse gods. She has "Spell Points" so I am going to say this puts her between the time of 1988 and 1994 or so. Another character in this group is a Dwarven Wayfinder, which was an AD&D 2nd Ed kit, but the character is also an AD&D 1st ed character.

Rhiannon

Class: Witch
Level: 8
Species: Human
Alignment: Evil Twilight
Background: Scholar

Abilities
Strength: 11 (+0) 
Agility: 16 (+2) 
Toughness: 15 (+1) 
Intelligence: 17 (+2) A
Wits: 17 (+2) N
Persona: 14 (+1) N

Fate Points: 1d10
Defense Value: 1
Vitality: 36
Degeneracy: 0
Corruption: 0

Check Bonus (A/N/D): +4/+3/+1
Melee Bonus: +1 (base) 
Ranged Bonus: +1 (base)
Saves: +5 vs spells and magical effects (witch and scholar)

Arcane Abilities
Beguile, Precognition, Shadow Walking

Heroic (Divine) Archetype: Magic

Spells
First Level (4): Black Flames, Chill Ray, Mystical Senses, Read Languages
Second Level (3): Eternal Flame, Invisibility, See Invisible
Third Level (3): Clairvoyance, Dark Lightning, Globe of Darkness
Fourth Level (2): Black Tentacles, Kiss of the Succubus

Gear
Bracers of defense, dagger of venom

If my Rhiannon is based on Stevie Nicks (and maybe then Arnell is my Lindsey Buckingham), then this Rhiannon is someone different. 

I have to admit, I kinda want her as a rival to Larina. They had the same spiritual mentor, my original Rhiannon. When she died, this Rhiannon took her mentor's name. 

I like it and unlike my other characters, Larina never really had a proper antagonist, and Grenda LOVED creating antagonists for my characters. I still can't say the name "Kirkroy" without saying "Fucking Kirkroy!" all the time. 

Wow. That is it. 

I still have another 100 or so more characters in his stack here. I might pull some out for a special occasion or if I need a quick NPC.  I also think I am going to come back to Rhiannon here more often. I think it is a good thing to do more with her. It would have been fun to have had some input on her from Grenda himself.

You can get the Wasted Lands RPG and the NIGHT SHIFT RPG at Elf Lair Games.

Ok. There is no good reason to do this character. He isn't part of the current Forgotten Realms characters. He isn't odd in sort of way. He doesn't help test my Dungeons & Dragons translations to Wasted Lands.

He is just kinda cool really.

So, I know nothing about this character at all. He predates the time I was gaming with Grenda and he looks really old. The date on the sheet is 4/4/82. Again, nothing special about him, but I do dig the art. He has a solid Grey Mouser look about him.

In Wasted Lands species and races are largely just flavor. But our classic ones do get some benefits. Dwarves are one of those.

Oh. And it is important (to me) that his name is in all caps. 

KRONA (the Caped Killer)

Class: Renegade (from Wasted Lands)
Level: 12
Species: Dwarf
Alignment: Twilight Neutral
Background: Dwarf (Wasted Lands) 

Abilities
Strength: 17 (+2) N
Agility: 18 (+3) A
Toughness: 18 (+3) N
Intelligence: 18 (+3) 
Wits: 17 (+2) 
Persona: 16 (+2) 

Fate Points: 1d10
Defense Value: 2
Vitality: 67 
Degeneracy: 0
Corruption: 0

Check Bonus (A/N/D): +6/+4/+2
Melee Bonus: +4 (base)
Ranged Bonus: +4 (base)
Saves: +4 vs Death effects

Dwarf Abilities
Night Shighted, detect construction

Renegade Abilities
Improved Defence, Ranged Combat, Stealth Skills, Climbing, Danger Sense (1-4 d6), Perception, Vital Strike x4, Read Languages, Stealth Skills

Divine Touchstones
First Level: Psychic Power, Bio-feedback
Third Level: Supernatural Power, Mesmerize

Heroic (Divine) Archetype: Thief/Thug

Gear
Rapier, hand axe, battle axe, arrows, darts, hammer

These have been a lot of fun really. I am going to miss doing them and remembering my friend. I hostly have another 100 or so characters to go. I am going to have to hand pick something special for the last one.

You can get the Wasted Lands RPG and the NIGHT SHIFT RPG at Elf Lair Games.

 I have mentioned a few times this Character Creation Challenge that there are a few characters in Grenda's stack here that are homages to or inspired by my own characters. That was a two-way street. I already talked about how I used his Yoln as the Big Bad in my Buffy games. Today, I wanted to talk about a character that wasn't lifted but was certainly inspired. That would be John Adnerg, Captain of the USS Challenger. 

I figured then that today, the anniversary of the loss of the Space Shuttle Challenger, would make for a good time to talk about it. And of course a nod to the Character Creation Challenge's founder, Carl Stark the TARDIS Captain himself. 

My original USS Challenger was a Galaxy-class starship for FASA's Star Trek game using the Next Generation Officer's Manual. I gave it the registry NCC-62901, placing it a couple of years after the launch of the USS Galaxy and USS Enterprise-D.  The registry comes from the zip code of the city where I went to university.

In these games, John Adnerg had been promoted from Captain to Admiral and was handing the ship over to his former first officer, Johan Werner. That is until disaster struck and sent the ship to the Andromeda Galaxy (2.5 mly away). Yeah, a little like Voyager, but I had this idea in 1989.  Of these games, I only ran "The Ship on the Edge of Forever" and "Ghost Ship." These games obviously informed me of what I wanted out of Thirteen Parsecs. 

I don't know if the USS Challenger ever got home. I might need to revisit that someday. 

Adm. John "The Wizard" Adnerg

Class: Diplomat
Level: 14
Species: Human
Alignment: Light Good
Background: Scholar 

Abilities
Strength: 14 (+1) 
Agility: 15 (+1) N
Toughness: 16 (+2) 
Intelligence: 14 (+1) N
Wits: 15 (+0)
Persona: 17 (+2) A

Fate Points: 1d
Defense Value: 1
Vitality: 7
Degeneracy: 0
Corruption: 0

Check Bonus (A/N/D): +4/+2/+1
Melee Bonus: +4 (base) 
Ranged Bonus: +4 (base)
Saves: +9 to Mental (Diplomat and Scholar background)

Diplomat Abilities
Contacts, Languages, Lore, Mesmerize Others, Suggestion, Slicer Skills (Sneak, Open Locks, Bypass Traps, Sleight of Hand, Fast Talk, Disguise), Read Languages.

John Adnerg was the Captain of the Galaxy Class Starship Challenger until he was promoted to Admiral. Nick named "The Wizard" for his ability to find ways out of nearly impossible situations and come out on top.

Yeah. I like this version of him.

This is not the only USS Challenger I have in my collection. I also finished building an NX refit from the 2150s that I am calling NX-03 Challenger. Though when the Federation formed in 2161, the NX-refit was renamed the Explorer Class, and the Challenger became NCC-099, the retroactive "first" of the class of Explorer class scientific research ships with the USS Beagle NCC-100, USS Endurance NCC-101, USS Roebuck NCC-102, and the USS Victoria NCC 103, all named for ships of exploration in Earth's past. 

My other Challenger, NCC 2032, is an Excelsior-class ship I am working on. That one was in service from 2278 on.

You can get the Thirteen Parsecs RPG, the  Wasted Lands RPG and the NIGHT SHIFT RPG at Elf Lair Games.

Heading into the home stretch and have a stack of Forgotten Realms characters here. I am certainly going to use them in my own games in the Realms. 

"Corvell Multane" is a quintessential Grenda character name.  He comes from the same time period as does the HIVE. And much like the HIVE was influenced by my Spyder Society, this Ice seems (on the surface) to have been influenced by my "Ice" from three years prior. Was he trying to recreate some of my characters for his own game? I don't think so. I have found character sheets of some of my characters in his collection. If he wanted them in his game, he just used them. These characters are inspired by, but not the same as. 

Since I am translating these characters to the Wasted Lands, I think I am going to try to keep them as "Realms accurate" as I can. So that means classes RAW and little to no Heroic Touchstones. 

Corvell "Ice" Multane

Class: Warrior
Level: 1
Species: Human
Alignment: Light Neutral
Background: Warrior 

Abilities
Strength: 15 (+1) A
Agility: 16 (+2)
Toughness: 16 (+2) 
Intelligence: 16 (+2) N
Wits: 9 (+0)
Persona: 17 (+2) N

Fate Points: 1d8
Defense Value: 1
Vitality: 7
Degeneracy: 0*
Corruption: 0

Check Bonus (A/N/D): +2/+1/+0
Melee Bonus: +1 (base) 
Ranged Bonus: +1 (base)
Saves: +1 to all Saves, +2 to Toughness (Warrior background)

Warrior Abilities
Combat Expertise, Improved Defence, Melee Combat, Master of Battle, Ranged Combat, Supernatural Attacks (Melee), Spell Resistance, Tracking

Wow. Ok, I like that. I mean, there are no surprises here, but that is a clean-cut character and would do well in the Wasted Lands or Forgotten Realms. 

I will likely drop Degeneracy and Corruption if I continue these for the Forgotten Realms. Though, one could argue that Szass Tam is the model for both of these. 

This is going to be fun.

You can get the Wasted Lands RPG and the NIGHT SHIFT RPG at Elf Lair Games.

 Ok. I totally forgot I backed these. Two new adventures (#10 and #11) from Mark Taormino's Maximum Mayhem adventures from Dark Wizard Games.

Fantastic Quest of Whimsical One (#10) & Lost Tomb of Mummy Lich (#11) are his two newest adventures and they fit into that nice sweet spot that Old-School Essentials covers so well. Though Legend of the Seven Golden Demons (#9) goes to the 18th level.

I have been doing so much with Wasted Lands lately, maybe I could try these out with that system!

Regardless of the system I choose to use, I am running out of room in my box!

 Amok Silvertyne is another Cheysuli Beastmaster. I know that needs translating. I have mentioned Cheysuli here before with Finn Danis, Vale Warmark, and my own Absom Sark. They are a race of shape-shifting warriors with animal companions known as Lyr (or Lir, I forget).  I have also talked about Beastmasters before. Beastmasters were one of the "Riddlemaster" classes that Grenda created along with Starmasters, Shadowmasters, and Riddlemasters proper. 

In this month of character postings I have found good substitutes for these classes in the Wasted Lands rules, or by dipping into the other O.G.R.E.S. classes. This has not been the case yet for Beastmasters. This is no fault of the Wasted Lands rules, more akin to the nature of the classes Grenda created. For my own Absom Sark I used the Beastmaster from the Complete B/X Adventurer. It works, but Amok here feels closer to the Riddlemasters than he does to the Beastmasters.

In Wasted Lands I think the best way to do this guy is make him a Psychic Warrior (Class from Thirteen Parsecs), give him the Animistic Background, make his species Supernatural (Lycanthrope), and round out the edges with some Heroic Touchstones. Granted, the Beastmaster, like all the Riddlemaster classes, are grossly overpowered, so I am not going to match him up power for power. But I want to get close to his concept.

Amok Silvertyne

Class: Mystic Warrior (from Thirteen Parsecs)
Level: 6
Species: Supernatural, Lycanthrope (from NIGHT SHIFT)
Alignment: Twilight Good
Background: Animistic 

Abilities
Strength: 16 (+2) N
Agility: 19 (+3) N
Toughness: 19 (+3) 
Intelligence: 19 (+3)  
Wits: 17 (+2) A
Persona: 17 (+2) 

Fate Points: 1d8
Defense Value: 0
Vitality: 45 
Degeneracy: 0
Corruption: 0

Check Bonus (A/N/D): +4/+2/+1
Melee Bonus: +3 (base) 
Ranged Bonus: +3 (base) 
Number of Attacks: 2
Saves: +1 vs saves

Mystic Warrior Abilities
Combat Mastery, Impossibly Agile, Mysticism, Lightning Fast, Survivor Skills, Free Running, Favored Weapon: Sword

Mystic Powers
Enhanced Senese, Danger Sense, Supernatural Attacks

Lycanthrope Powers
Shapechange into a wolf.

Heroic Touchstones
Level 1: Psychic Ability: Telepathy (animals)
Level 3: Spirit Guide: Direwolf ("Lorn")
Level 5: +1 to melee attacks

Heroic (Divine) Archetype: Nature

Gear
Longsword, Dagger, Mace, Spear, Bow

This is rather good, to be honest. I was worried I would not be able to capture what this character was in Wasted Lands, but I never should have doubted. 

You can get the Wasted Lands RPG, the NIGHT SHIFT RPG, and Thirteen Parsecs RPG at Elf Lair Games.

 I wanted to spend a week doing evil characters, but my week got away from me. I was supposed to do these yesterday. Plus I also have another reason for doing these. My oldest is building a bunch of NPC adventuring parties. In his current game these adventuring guilds are akin to the social media celebrities of his world. They are all ranked, with the ones with the highest ranks getting the best sponsorship deals and merchandising deals. Groups with signature-named weapons do better since the weapons can be sold separately for their action figures.  

The Hive here are not highly ranked. But that is fine since he needs a few of them.

I am not 100% sure about the origin of these guys, but the timing and the names of the characters remind me of my own "Spyder Society" I had made a couple years before them.  I don't think they were made to be NPCs, these look like characters he was going to play at some point. Plus a few have what look like "play notes" on them.

What REALLY stands out about these characters though is they were made for the Forgotten Realms. This is interesting because I didn't even know Grenda, a hard core Greyhawk guy, was doing anything at all with the Realms. But they all worship evil gods from the Realms. He also has his city, Rivendell (not the Tolkien one), placed in the Realms somewhere. If I use them, I'll change that to Waterdeep. Though I would have liked to have known where he put his city on Faerûn.

There is a nice variety here, but all are 1st level (or so) and all are fairly standard AD&D classes. So translating them into Wasted Lands is pretty easy.

Cobra

Class: Renegade
Level: 1
Species: Human
Alignment: Dark Evil
Background: Warrior

Abilities
Strength: 18 (+3) N
Agility: 18 (+3) A
Toughness: 18 (+3) N 
Intelligence: 15 (+1) 
Wits: 16 (+1)
Persona: 18 (+3) 

Fate Points: 1d6
Defense Value: 1
Vitality: 10
Degeneracy: 0
Corruption: 0

Check Bonus (A/N/D): +2/+1/+0
Melee Bonus: +1 (base), 
Ranged Bonus: +1 (base)
Saves: +3 to Death Saves
Number of Attacks: 1

Renegade Abilities
Improved Defence, Ranged Combat, Stealth Skills, Climbing, Danger Sense (1-3 d6)

Heroic/Divine Touchstones
1st Level: +1 to melee attacks

Heroic (Divine) Archetype: Thug

Gear
Longsword, dagger, crossbow

Widow

Class: Renegade
Level: 1
Species: Dökkálfar
Alignment: Dark Evil
Background: Warrior

Abilities
Strength: 17 (+2) 
Agility: 18 (+3) A
Toughness: 17 (+2) N 
Intelligence: 18 (+3) N
Wits: 15 (+1)
Persona: 16 (+2) 

Fate Points: 1d6
Defense Value: 3
Vitality: 6
Degeneracy: 0
Corruption: 0

Check Bonus (A/N/D): +2/+1/+0
Melee Bonus: +1 (base), 
Ranged Bonus: +1 (base)
Saves: +3 to Death Saves
Number of Attacks: 1

Renegade Abilities
Improved Defence, Ranged Combat, Stealth Skills, Climbing, Danger Sense (1-3 d6)

Heroic/Divine Touchstones
1st Level: 1 Level of Sorcerer

Heroic (Divine) Archetype: Trickster

Gear
Longsword, dagger, dart

Pi

Class: Renegade/Necromancer
Level: 1/1
Species: Half-Ljósálfar
Alignment: Dark Evil
Background: Cult

Abilities
Strength: 17 (+2) 
Agility: 18 (+3) A
Toughness: 16 (+2)  
Intelligence: 16 (+2) N
Wits: 17 (+2) N
Persona: 15 (+2) 

Fate Points: 1d6
Defense Value: 1
Vitality: 7
Degeneracy: 0
Corruption: 0

Check Bonus (A/N/D): +2/+1/+0
Melee Bonus: +1 (base), 
Ranged Bonus: +1 (base)
Saves: +3 to Death Saves
Number of Attacks: 1

Necromancer Abilities
Channel the Dead, See Dead people, Turn Undead, Protection from the Dead

Renegade Abilities
Improved Defence, Ranged Combat, Stealth Skills, Climbing, Danger Sense (1-3 d6)

Heroic/Divine Touchstones
1st Level: Psychic Power: Telekinesis 

Heroic (Divine) Archetype: Speaker to the Dead

Gear
Shortsword, mace, dagger

Wasp

Class: Renegade/Sorcerer
Level: 3/3
Species: Deep Gnome
Alignment: Dark Evil
Background: Cult

Abilities
Strength: 17 (+2) 
Agility: 18 (+3) A
Toughness: 16 (+2)  
Intelligence: 17 (+2) A
Wits: 16 (+2) N
Persona: 15 (+2) 

Fate Points: 1d6
Defense Value: 4
Vitality: 13
Degeneracy: 0
Corruption: 0

Check Bonus (A/N/D): +3/+1/+0
Melee Bonus: +1 (base), 
Ranged Bonus: +1 (base)
Saves: +3 to Death Saves
Number of Attacks: 1

Renegade Abilities
Improved Defence, Ranged Combat, Stealth Skills, Climbing, Danger Sense (1-3 d6), Vital Strike

Sorcerer Abilities
Spell casting, Aracna (Enhanced Senses, Psychic Power Suggestion)

Sorcerer Spells
First Level: Chill Ray, Extinguish Light
Second Level: Invisibility

Heroic/Divine Touchstones
1st Level: Psychic Power: Bio-feedback 
3rd Level: Luck Benefit

Heroic (Divine) Archetype: Trickster

Gear
Shortsword, mace, dagger

Cottonmouth

Class: Renegade/Necromancer
Level: 1/1
Species: Half-orc
Alignment: Dark Evil
Background: Cult

Abilities
Strength: 17 (+2) 
Agility: 18 (+3) A
Toughness: 17 (+2)  
Intelligence: 16 (+2) N
Wits: 17 (+2) N
Persona: 10 (+0) 

Fate Points: 1d6
Defense Value: 1
Vitality: 8
Degeneracy: 0
Corruption: 0

Check Bonus (A/N/D): +2/+1/+0
Melee Bonus: +1 (base), 
Ranged Bonus: +1 (base)
Saves: +3 to Death Saves
Number of Attacks: 1

Necromancer Abilities
Channel the Dead, See Dead people, Turn Undead, Protection from the Dead

Renegade Abilities
Improved Defence, Ranged Combat, Stealth Skills, Climbing, Danger Sense (1-3 d6)

Heroic/Divine Touchstones
1st Level: +1 to melee attacks

Heroic (Divine) Archetype: Assassin

Gear
Bastardsword, morningstar, dagger

"The Shadow"

No idea who this is. "He" appears to be their boss or handler.  His name appears on all their sheets under Patron. It is likely that one of his own characters relocated to the Realms.

I must admit. I am tempted to reuse these characters for my own Forgotten Realms expropriations. A great set of antagonists for my Sinéad.

You can get the Wasted Lands RPG and the NIGHT SHIFT RPG at Elf Lair Games.

 I don't know who this character is ("One Person"), but I do know what he is supposed to be. His class is Adept of the Spirit, which was our attempts to bring the Riddlemaster back down to a reasonable class, and use a name that wasn't going to get us into trouble if we had ever decided to publish it. 

We never got it to that point. I had bugged Grenda about it over the years and then again when the OSR scene first started going strong, but he was not interested in doing it then. It was always, "Yeah, I should do that soon." Well. That "soon" never came. I do admit some hesitation in releasing it now; I really don't, to be honest. But intellectually, I wonder how it would work for, say, Old School Essentials or one of the AD&D 1st clones.

For Wasted Lands, though, this is a perfect time for me to try him out as a Mystic Warrior from Thirteen Parsecs.

Eno Nosrep

Class: Mystic Warrior (from Thirteen Parsecs)
Level: 13
Species: Human
Alignment: Neutral
Background: Scholar

Abilities
Strength: 18 (+3) A
Agility: 17 (+2) 
Toughness: 18 (+3) N 
Intelligence: 17 (+2) 
Wits: 14 (+1)
Persona: 16 (+2) N

Fate Points: 1d10
Defense Value: 1
Vitality: 104
Degeneracy: 0
Corruption: 0

Check Bonus (A/N/D): +6/+4/+2
Melee Bonus: +5 (base), +3 (STR)
Ranged Bonus: +5 (base)
Saves: +5 to all Toughness Saves
Number of Attacks: 3

Mystic Warrior Abilities
Combat Mastery, Impossibly Agile, Mysticism, Lightning Fast, Survivor Skills, Free Running, Iron Will, Favored Weapon (+1 damage die), Mind over Body, Instant Kill

Powers
Danger Sense, Enhanced Senses, Supernatural Attacks

Heroic/Divine Touchstones
1st Level: +1 to melee attacks
3rd Level: +1 to Wits Saves
5th Level:  Luck Benefit
7th Level: Psychic Ability: Telepathy
9th Level: +1 level of Sorcerer
11th Level: +1 level of Sorcerer
13th Level: +1 level of Sorcerer

Heroic (Divine) Archetype: Mental Discipline

Gear
Longsword, dagger, short bow

Yes. This works quite nicely, to be honest. Mystic Warriors do make for a good stand-in for Riddlemasters. I am just sad that Grenda didn't get a chance to see this.

You can get the Wasted Lands RPG and the NIGHT SHIFT RPG at Elf Lair Games.